Cleveland Heights was a mess

[BobcatJH]

I posted this elsewhere, but I'll repost it here:

At 10:15 a.m., I was the first person to vote electronically at my precinct in Cleveland Heights. Having arrived at 6:30 when the polls opened, we were immediately told by poll workers that none of the five cards voters use to vote electronically were functional. In fact, I'm fairly certain that the majority of the cards came up as dead on arrival. If you're unfamiliar with how the process works here, when voters sign in, they're handed a card that looks much like a hotel key card. Then, they go to the machine, cast their ballot and bring the card back to the poll worker, who takes it and prepares it for the next voter.

Well, none of the cards or miniature readers worked. From 6:30 a.m. on, poll workers in contact with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections were told that they were, in fact, aware of the problem and that, to be sure, help was on the way. Between five and ten minutes away. They were repeatedly given the five-to-ten-minute story for three hours. Help never came. Apparently, similar problems had happened at other area precincts. At one point, a poll worker was told that the problems were so widespread in Cleveland that dispatching support staff to a single precinct would be next to impossible. Making matters worse was the fact that the workers' board-issued (I'm fairly sure) cell phone was nonfunctional, too. Meaning, without their personal cell phones and the help of the hotel at which they were located, they would have been completely out of luck.

In the time before help arrived, they were telling people to vote using a provisional ballot, and that a poll worker would write "regular" on those ballots, meaning the people would have voted electronically if they could have. Nearly as many people did this as left in a huff, their stories recorded by an observer. When repeated calls for help went unheeded, I actually tried the BoE myself and was somehow connected to the same folks the poll workers had talked to. Like them, I was told help was on the way. It, of course, never was.

Until roughly 10 a.m., that is, when someone from a nearby precinct that had seen similar problems came by, followed shortly by two Diebold staffers. After rebooting the machines and initializing new cards, my precinct was back in business. I should also say that my calls to 1-888-DEM-VOTE were handled very well, each individual answering the phone going the extra mile to make sure that each issue would be investigated and followed-up upon. But it should never have gotten to that point.

This system, as it stands, is designed to fail, and designed to fail Democratic voters. I can't think of any other way to say it. Poll workers weren't allowed to test the cards until just before the polls opened, meaning they had little prep time to iron out any glitches. Board officials were completely non-responsive for a solid three hours. Michael Vu, the Cuyahoga County Board director, should be fired. Ohio has once again failed its citizens. This is supposed to be a democracy. Supposed to. For my part, I wasn't going to cast a provisional ballot, I just wasn't. I don't trust that the board would have ever counted it, which is funny, considering I was skipping such a ballot to wait for a Diebold machine. But goddammit, if my country is going to become a tin-pot dictatorship, it's going to happen with me watching, with me trying to fight for whatever last shreds of our freedoms still exist.

In case you're unfamiliar with the area in which I live, it's one of the bluest parts of a blue city, Cleveland. It's also home to a sizable minority population. From what I was hearing, the problems I had experienced were widespread, especially in areas near mine. This, to me, is no coincidence. And if you, like me, have had any problems, please report them in the comments. Report them, also, to the proper authorities. We can't let them kill America in plain sight. We just cant. And if you haven't yet voted today, please do so. We have to act as though our lives depend on it. Because they do.

[MeDeMax]

1. I am so OUTRAGED to hear this ...

they are doing it again.

[slaveplanet]

2. This needs wider coverage

repost to gd. or one of the other problem threads.

This sucks bigtime, CH is heavily dem.

http://www.votersunite.org/electionproblems.asp

[AngryOldDem]

3. DAMN

<<This system, as it stands, is designed to fail, and designed to fail Democratic voters.<<

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

If evidence of fraud and other obstructionist tactics is as rampant as they were in 2000, or 2004, then I think it's time to just shut the whole process down and investigate it from top to bottom, bottom to top, inside and out. If we don't have a Congress until Doomsday, so be it. If this gets tied up in the courts until we're all old and gray, so be it. It comes down to this: Just how important is our right to vote, how does this right define us as a country and as a society, how much do we really value it? Just what will we do to protect it?

Even despotic regimes have "elections." Is this what we want to become, a nation that "exercises" a meaningless "right"? A nation that just goes through the motions? I want NO part of that.

To sit by and watch as our voting rights are made worthless through shameless guile and manipulation goes against everything that this nation was founded on. It's what people have fought and died to protect, and what (supposedly) they are fighting and dying for today. That's a cliche for sure, but it doesn't make it any less true.

As the old Joni Mitchell song goes, "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you got 'till it's gone." One day we'll wake up and it will be too late. The erosion of democracy that is taking place here with every single election alternately scares and angers me. Right now, it angers me, because I feel absolutely powerless and frustrated.

[bedpanartist]

4. Time for a Boston Tea Party

only this time, we throw Diebold Machines into the Cuyahoga River.

[lizziegrace]

5. Or the Scioto or Olentangy Rivers in Columbus

Right by the Statehouse. :evilgrin:

:)

[AngryOldDem]

7. I really don't mean to sound melodramatic.

If I do, I'm sorry. But with every election there's proof that voting is being endangered. I see that as a very, very grave threat to every other freedom and right we have.

Al Gore was right to do what he did in 2000.

And I want to pass along what I just heard from Bob Franken, who's in Columbus for CNN. "We're waiting to see if the Ohio GOP can pull off another miracle." Not sure if he was referring to Brown/DeWine, or Strickland/Blackwell. Sad thing is, does it really matter?

Off to change my avatar...

[lizziegrace]

8. I don't see it as melodrama at all

The right to vote, and have that vote counted is a fundamental freedom we have relied on for centuries. I can't stand seeing it eroded like the constitution. It makes me sick and very sad.

[bedpanartist]

11. what are you willing to do??

besides complain online?

I'm not directing that to you personally, but really, what are people willing to do?

And now that I've set that straight, what are YOU willing to do personally.

I am willing to dump them in the river.

[lizziegrace]

12. I work as a pollworker and try to monitor what I can at the precinct

I have spoken to our SOS candidate about the shortcomings of a receipt, because the whole process is driven by computers put out by private corporations. And when I finally have a steady income, intend to donate to groups who are working hard to get these machines out of here.

I'd like to throw them in the river, but I have a daughter who needs me around rather than in prison.

[bedpanartist]

13. as long as we bend over

they're going to make sure we take it.

[lizziegrace]

14. I don't know

I do what I can. I've got to leave and head to my part time job after working all day. I'll try and catch some of the results if I can sneak away to look at the news.

Night y'all.

[AngryOldDem]

15. I'm going to become more involved in the process over the next two years

As well as become VERY conversant on the issue of e-voting, and seek answers to my questions.

I'm not running for office. I can't file a challenge, like John McCain should have done over the South Carolina GOP primary in 2000, and like what John Kerry SHOULD have done in this state in 2004. That's why I admire Al Gore the more I think back on 2000. He took it as far as he could. Those in position to press the allegations of fraud, and have the resources to get the proof, need to be our watcdogs here. I'd like to see the party as a whole begin to speak out.

There's another thread (on GD, I think) that asks how can elections be overturned? There is no answer to that, because up until now it hasn't been an issue. Maybe it's time we looked into that as well, which would take Congress getting involved. (Remember when they failed to support the Black Democratic Caucus, when all they needed was ONE vote in support of looking into voter irregularities after 2004?)

Maybe nothing can be done about this. But I don't want to give up without a fight. That's partly what I meant by feeling frustrated and powerless.

[lizziegrace]

6. I feel badly for the poll workers

Most of us are volunteers who want to serve. We get minimal training and little or no support at the precinct, unless you're fortunate enough to have a good, experienced precinct judge. Even still, the new equipment malfunctioning cannot be solved by experience or extensive training.

We requested additional machines during the 2004 election in Columbus and waited all day. No one showed up. The people on the front lines have a helluva job to do, all alone.

:(

[AngryOldDem]

9. My hat is off to you all

You make a real commitment, time and otherwise. I'm hoping to do that in 2008, when family/kid duties won't be as pressing.

For what it's worth -- :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[lizziegrace]

10. I hope you can volunteer

I went home after the 2004 election from a Columbus precinct after being on my feet from 5:45a until 8:45 pm. I had blisters under my toes, it was that bad. So, find yourself some good shoes between now and then. ;)